Scatology 101: At the beginning of this meeting, we made a round of the group to see if anyone had anything that they wanted to announce, any question to ask, or pearl that they wanted to share, albeit briefly. Sky was the first person, and he asked the question that has been bothering him for sometime now -- that relates to a concern about his daughter who has cystic fibrosis and great difficulty having normal bowel movements. He was shocked to read and learn all we know and all we don't know medically about the bacteria growing in the bowel. He informed us that there are at least 1500 species of bacteria that live normally in the bowel. And he particularly has questions about using Miralax as a treatment for intractable constipation. Unfortunately or fortunately, this question led to basically scatological comments which continued through fully 1/2 of the circle of the group. Who would have thought that consideration of shitting would have led to so many wise and pithy statements? Unfortunately I didn't write the pith down, so you all will have to rely on your own memories for this topic.
Meredith did try to broaden the topic asking us to consider the Great Amazon Basin as a huge digestive organ for the planet Earth. There are more species there than in any other habitat including the human bowel. But we humans are in the process of destroying this habitat, by logging it, burning what remains, farming this land for a while and then when it ceases to bear fruit well, moving on to more land and logging it, continuing the cycle. In a like manner in our own systems, natural substances often helped control our various functions but we are destroying those natural substances, such as herbs. We replace these natural products with medications. But often these medications have unintended consequences that could not have been foreseen.
Mary recommended at book she is reading called "The Afterlife of Billy Fingers."
Sharleen recommended the movie, entitled "The Painter" now playing probably at the Downer.
The second half of the round table recalled some of the discussion during the previous week's meeting with Dr. Prosen and his work on empathy. Many members of the group had been stimulated by some of Dr. Prosen's discussion of this topic, an area that he was interested in during his entire career both in the psychiatric treatment of human beings and then in the treatment of primates particularly bonobos. I think Dr. Prosen also learned a lot about empathy from the zoo animals, and from their keepers and the researchers at the zoo.
Comments suggested that the word empathy is a relatively new word just arising about 100 years ago. Actually the word began to be used in about 1850 but that is relatively recently. It is based on the Greek word: empatheia which means passion. It is basically em+pathos which means feelings or emotions. Further, the word was actually coined in 1858 by German philosopher Rudolf Lotze (1817-1881) as a translation of Greek empatheia. There are two definitions of empathy. the first and most often use means a direct identification with, understanding of, and vicarious experience of another person's situation, feelings, and motives. The second use defines empathy as the projection of one's own feelings or emotional state onto an object or animal. This is the way that the word is used in art appreciation. One member of our group has studied art appreciation and recognizes this use of the word, but has difficulty understanding how art can communicate a feeling to the observer without being that feeling. Art therapy is used to help people, but it seems to work best when the art is used with movement. A study was cited from the Scientific American, where a drug addict has to push a bar away when the addict has a craving for the drug. The group that was required and complied with this pushing the bar away had a better success rate at addiction cure. There was something about the kinesthetic act of pushing that bar coincident with the craving.
The group discussed the difference or lack of difference between the meaning of the words empathy and compassion. One of the ideas most expressed about empathy is that it lacks any judgement. For example, one would have difficulty understanding a child abuser if you judge him as sick or evil.
We also always must remember that these definitions depend on our perception of the words and of the world. And often with perception there is deception. Not only must we always be aware that how we perceive the world is almost always wrong. In addition, language is often inaccurate. Paul cautioned us that in Buddhist thought empathy and compassion would be equal and nearly the same. There is no judgement with either one. Think of the specific Buddhist practice of tonglen meditation which extends compassion to others from those closest to us and even ourselves, to inclusively the whole world of sentient beings. The word sympathy also entered the discussion. But it was felt that sympathy means having a "feeling for" whereas empathy or compassion means having a "feeling with or even feeling into." The idea of pity also came up. In Buddhist thought pity should be regarded as the enemy of empathy. Again language creates some of the problems we have in understanding these definition differences. Language is the stuff of dualities. Many of our neuroses may be related to language. But we really don't have other effective ways to communicate to the degree that our human lives seem to require. We just must remember the inaccuracies in language and in perception and how they can complicate our human relationships.
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